Dave's Movie News

This Blog is all about discovering New Movies .....every morning I look for "soon to be seen" or even those movies still on the drawing board. I even like rumors of movies that may happen. Then of course I post them here to share with you what I've found. If you have news or comments please share them.....Dave

Friday, August 19, 2005

The Cave

The Story: Deep in the Romanian forest, a team of scientists stumbles upon the ruins of a 13th century Abbey. On further inspection, they make a startling discovery - the Abbey is built over the entrance to a giant underground cave system. Local biologists belive the cave could be home to an undiscovered eco-system, so they hire a group of American cave-explorers to help them investigate its depths.

Jack (Cole Hauser) and his brother Tyler (Eddie Cibrian) are thrill-seeking professional cave explorers who run a team of the top divers in the world. They arrive in Romania with all the latest equipment, including a new type of scuba tank allowing a diver to remain submerged for up to 24 hours. The crack unit, which also includes Charlie (Piper Perabo) and Buchanan (Morris Chestnut), immediately begin their exploration. But what they find deep inside the caves is not just a new eco-system, but an entirely new species altogether...

The Truth Machine

Lions Gate Film has optioned James Halperin's sci-fi thriller The Truth Machine and set it up with Ithaka Entertainment's Andrew Weiner and Braxton Pope along with Fritz Manger and Bill McDonald (Rome).

Ron Shusett (co-creator of the "Alien" franchise) and George Lee Marshall (Dark Side) will adapt the novel.

The Truth Machine examines what the world would be like after the construction of a perfect lie detector, with the character who invented the machine committing a crime and then submitting to his own creation.

Shoot 'Em Up

Paul Giamatti and Monica Bellucci are in talks to join Clive Owen in New Line Cinema's Shoot 'Em Up, a hard-core action project from screenwriter-director Michael Davis. Don Murphy, Susan Montford and Rick Benattar are producing.

The Hollywood Reporter says the story begins with a woman having a baby during a shootout. The man who delivers the baby, called simply Mr. Smith (Owen), is entrusted with protecting it from an army of gunmen.

Giamatti would play the villain who wants the baby dead, and Bellucci would be Owen's love interest.

A January start date is being eyed. Jeff Katz and Cale Boyter are overseeing for the studio.

Invasion

Produced by Joel Silver ("The Matrix" trilogy), the sci-fi thriller tells the story of a mysterious epidemic that alters the behavior of human beings. When a Washington D.C. psychiatrist (Kidman) discovers the epidemic's origins are extraterrestrial, she must fight to protect her son, who may hold the key to stopping an imminent invasion.

Craig plays Kidman's colleague and love interest who teams up with her to fight the invasion.

The Story: Momoko (pop idol Kyoko Fukada) yearns to live in 18-century Versailles than in her back-country hometown of Shimotsuma, heartland of the yakuza. To escape, she loses herself in the dreamy, doll-like fashions of the "Lolita" scene. Her idol is Akinori Isobe, chief designer of Baby, the Stars Shine Bright—her favorite Lolita design hose. She travels all the way to Tokyo to shop at their store.

The Forger

According to Variety, Paramount is making a deal with The Forger, buying Richard D'Ovidio's spec script and setting it up with Lorenzo Di Bonaventura.

Story centers on an imprisoned thief who buys his way out of prison when he learns his estranged son has only a few months to live. But his efforts to make up for lost time with the teen are endangered when a crime boss forces him to do one last job.

Paramount-based di Bonaventura is a producer on the upcoming Four Brothers, starring Mark Wahlberg and Andre Benjamin and directed by John Singleton. He's also a producer on Par and DreamWorks' Transformers and Universal's Doom.

D'Ovidio's scripting credits include Exit Wounds, Thirteen Ghosts and Ace in the Hole.

Dukes of Hazzard

Well we'll put this and a few other movies to rest with this story: ShowBIZ Data's box office estimates for Friday show that Warner Bros' remake of the popular CBS show The Dukes of Hazzard, starring Johnny Knoxville, Seann William Scott and Jessica Simpson, has scored the top spot with $12.5 million in its opening day on Friday. As the ninth widest release of all time, Dukes has little competition for the top spot this weekend, where it should earn somewhere between $33 and 35 million.

Meanwhile, the studio's indie subdivision Warner Indendent Pictures is close to scoring another coup with its G-rated nature documentary March of the Penguins. It expanded into 1,897 theatres nationwide on Friday, becoming the second widest release for a documentary, and after making roughly $2 million on Friday, its set to become the second highest-grossing documentary after Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 tomorrow.

Neither put much of a damper on New Line's Wedding Crashers, which added another $4.9 million to its box office. That's about a million less than it earned last Friday, and it brings it box office gross to over $133 million.

Of last week's three new movies, Disney's superhero comedy Sky High held up the best, adding another $2.9 million to its take yesterday and Rob Cohen's Stealth held up the worst, making a million less then that on its second Friday. Warner Brothers' romantic comedy Must Love Dogs ended up right inbetween with $2.4 million.

The way things are looking right now, Time Warner will end up with five of the six top movies this weekend. Check back tomorrow for the full weekend box office report.

In regards to the former, it looks like Cameron Bright (Birth, Godsend) will stars as Leech in the third mutant installment. For more news on the anticipated film, click here.

Also, Ghost Rider writer/director Mark Steven Johnson has continued answering fans' questions about the comic book adaptation on the Superhero Hype! message boards. Here's a clip on the voice you'll hear for Ghost Rider in the movie:

Things are going great on the G.R. front. In fact, today I got to hear the Ghost Rider's voice for the first time!!! My Sound Designer is Dane Davis, who won the Academy Award for The Matrix, and is a true genius when it comes to creating new sounds. To start with, Dane took Nic's reading of all of the Ghost Rider's lines, filtered them through 3 different kinds of animal growls (played backwards, covering three separate frequencies) then played it through a mechanical volumizer, before finally setting the whole thing on fire! It's fantastic. Picture a deep, demonic, mechanical lion's roar and you'll get an idea of what he sounds like. One thing is for sure -- his voice will shake the theatre!

Johnson also addressed the leaked Comic-Con footage and his answers to questions can all be found here.

Friday, August 05, 2005

The Ant Boy

According Midway Games, Midway Games Inc. and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment today announced a multi-territory publishing agreement that grants Midway the rights to publish interactive games for console, handheld and PC platforms based on the upcoming computer animated motion picture The Ant Bully.

“We are very pleased to be partnering with Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment to bring The Ant Bully into the interactive space,” said Midway president and chief executive officer David F. Zucker. “Midway is looking forward to publishing great games based on this exciting film property for a younger audience of players.”

“Being a computer animated film, The Ant Bully will be an exciting property to develop as a game,” said Jason Hall, senior vice president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “The Ant Bully is a highly anticipated film and we look forward to working with Midway to create dynamic games based on a movie with mass appeal for young gamers.”

From director John A. Davis, of the Academy Award-nominated Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, produced by Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman, John A. Davis and executive produced by Keith Alcorn, The Ant Bully is an animated family adventure combining state-of-the-art 3D digital animation with a witty and heartwarming story for children of all ages. The Ant Bully, a Playtone Production, in association with DNA Productions, Inc., features the voice talents of Nicolas Cage, Alan Cumming, Zach Tyler Eisen, Paul Giamatti, Myles Jeffrey, Regina King, Cheri Oteri, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Jake Szymanski, and Lily Tomlin. The Ant Bully is scheduled for a 2006 release from Warner Bros. Pictures.

Terminus

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Eric Singer is writing Terminus, a political action movie that Basil Iwanyk's Thunder Road is producing for Warner Bros. Pictures. Set 50 years in the future, Terminus follows a burned-out and disillusioned war correspondent covering an insurgency who finds he can no longer stay objective.

"It deals head on with what some call insurgency, what some call guerilla warfare and what some call freedom fighting," Iwanyk said. "Today's scenarios are completely fluid, but by setting it in the future we can extrapolate how that world would look like. It sounds like it'd be ballsy for a studio, and Warners went for it because they believe in Eric and his take."

Endymion Spring

Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired the soon-to-be published young-adult fantasy manuscript Endymion Spring for Alysia Cotter and her new production banner, Bueller Films.

The Hollywood Reporter says the book is set in present-day Oxford and in 1450s Germany, at the dawn of printing. A young printer's apprentice discovers a mysterious chest with clasps that look like snakes heads -- with fangs that are rumored to be poisoned. When he touches it, the fangs pierce his fingers, drawing blood, and the chest opens. It contains a secret that will endure for more than 500 years until one lonely boy accidentally discovers it, beginning a quest for knowledge and power that puts him and humanity in grave danger.

The book, by Matthew Skelton, is due to be published next year by Penguin in the U.K. and Delacourt in U.S.

Forger

Paramount has bough Richard D'Ovidio's spec script The Forger and set it up with Lorenzo di Bonaventura, reports Variety.

The story centers on an imprisoned thief who buys his way out of prison when he learns his estranged son has only a few months to live. But his efforts to make up for lost time with the teen are endangered when a crime boss forces him to do one last job.

D'Ovidio's scripting credits include Exit Wounds, Thirteen Ghosts and Ace in the Hole.

On the Road

Walter Salles (Dark Water) will direct the feature adaptation of the Jack Kerouac classic On the Road, which is being produced by American Zoetrope, says The Hollywood Reporter.

Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries screenwriter Jose Rivera is adapting the book and Rebecca Yeldham, who executive produced "Diaries," will produce.

The 1957 novel, which played a role in giving rise to the Beat movement, is narrated by Kerouac's thinly veiled alter ego Sal Paradise, who gets inspired to hit the road and see America. The story follows his ups and downs as he hitchhikes, hops trains, meets other travelers, struggles for meals and explores the themes of freedom and longing.

Salles' boarding also reteams him with Focus Features and Pathe International, two companies that worked together on the director's award-winning "Diaries" and would jointly control the worldwide distribution rights to "Road."

The Retriever

GM! Let's start it off with Vin the man!The Hollywood Reporter says that Vin Diesel will star in a movie called The Retriever, which features Diesel as a one-man army fighting to save the world from nuclear apocalypse. The film will be funded by Germany's Equity Pictures.

The VinXperience fansite did a bit more research on the project and translated the following plot summary from Equity's website.

A thriller literally made for Vin Diesel, who is supposed to save the entire world from doom in a James Bond manner; at the last moment. The whole world is threatened by an apocalyptic weapon, which originates from the death zone of Tschernobyl, having been left behind after the accident in the power plant. Rebels, having nothing to loose, are now threatening to use it. Pure action and thrills are making 'The Retriever' both a huge cinema action film as well as a success to be in the world-wide DVD box office.

Diesel, whose The Pacifier is one of the biggest hits of the year earning $196.3 million worldwide, can next be seen in Find Me Guilty.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang

This film was written and directed by Shane Black and stars: Robert Downey Jr., Val Kilmer, Michelle Monaghan, Joel Michaely, and Corbin Bernsen.

The Story: In "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang," a breezy take on Shane Black's trademark buddy action/comedy oeuvre, a petty thief (Robert Downey Jr.) is brought to Los Angeles for an unlikely audition and finds himself in the middle of a murder investigation along with his high school dream girl (Michelle Monaghan) and a detective (Val Kilmer) who has been training him for his upcoming role.

Living Biblically

Paramount has acquired film rights to A.J. Jacobs' "The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Obey the Bible As Literally As Possible" and set it up at Brad Pitt's Plan B Entertainment, reports Variety.

The book will chronicle and examine a year in which Jacobs, Esquire magazine's editor at large, immerses himself in the rules of the Old and New Testament. Simon & Shuster plans to publish "The Year of Living Biblically" in fall 2006.

Paramount executives on the project are Alli Shearmur, co-president of production, and Pam Abdy, senior VP of production.

Barry Sonnenfeld is also directing Jacobs' most recent book, "The Know-it-all: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World," which involves his year of reading the entire Encyclopedia.

The Trespasser

According to Variety, the original film, based on the novel by Marcal Aquino, tells the story of two businessmen who hire a hitman to do away with their third partner, only to find themselves being blackmailed by their assassin and losing control of their prized company.

Apres Vous

Variety says that Warner Bros. Pictures has acquired remake rights to the French comedy Après Vous, and the studio will craft it as a star vehicle for Billy Crystal, who will produce with Art Linson.

Directed by Pierre Salvadori, the original comedy revolves around a headwaiter of a Paris bistro who happens upon a stranger who is about to commit suicide. After intervening, the waiter befriends the saved man -- who promptly turns the waiter's life upside down.

Liu will play a reporter who wakes up in a morgue and discovers she's no longer among the living. She vows revenge against the vampires responsible for putting her there and hunts them down one by one.

The magazine talked to writer/director Sebastian Gutierrez about the film. Here's a clip:

Although 'Rise' is clearly rooted in horror, Gutierrez says the film’s vibe is closer to classic film noir. "The story itself is very simple, but it's told in a non-linear fashion," he tells Fango. "And hopefully, it has a very nightmarish and relentless quality. It's very bleak noir, like John Boorman's Point Blank."

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

The Corpse Bride

Here's a visual look at Tim Burton's new stop action animated movie:

The Story: Corpse Bride carries on in the dark, romantic tradition of Tim Burton's classic films Edward Scissorhands and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Set in a 19th century European village, this stop-motion, animated feature follows the story of Victor (Johnny Depp), a young man who is whisked away to the underworld and wed to a mysterious Corpse Bride (Helena Bonham-Carter), while his real bride, Victoria (Emily Watson), waits bereft in the land of the living. Though life in the Land of the Dead proves to be a lot more colorful than his strict Victorian upbringing, Victor learns that there is nothing in this world, or the next, that can keep him away from his one true love. It's a tale of optimism, romance and a very lively afterlife, told in classic Tim Burton style.

Rockdown

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gold Circle Films, the indie production company behind such films as My Big Fat Greek Wedding and White Noise, has paid six figures for a pitch from writer Christian Gudegast and producer Tucker Tooley. Titled Rockdown, the pitch revolves around a new suburban street-fighting subculture known as MMA, Mixed Martial Arts. Rockdown will be helmed by Gudegast in his directorial debut.

The writer of A Man Apart and Mexicali, Gudegast began boxing at age 7 and now calls himself an aficionado of a form of street fighting called grappling. Rockdown will be fully financed by Gold Circle Films, with Tooley and Gold Circle president Paul Brooks serving as producers.

Afro Samurai

Samuel L. Jackson is attached to topline and co-produce a live-action feature to be adapted from the Japanese comic franchise Afro Samurai, created by Takashi Okazaki.

Variety says the film is a joint production of Japanese animation studio GDH K.K. Gonzo, Fuji TV and Mosaic Media in Los Angeles. Jackson is already signed to lend his voice to an animated Afro Samurai TV series set to premiere on Spike TV next year.

Afro Samurai is the tale of a black samurai futuristic, yet feudal Japan who is on a mission to avenge the wrongful death of his father. Jackson stars as "Afro," a warrior who travels a solitary path encountering a myriad of enemies, friends and challenges beyond imagination.

Production of the film is set to begin in 2006, with a U.S. release targeted for 2007.

School of Scoundrels

The Weinstein Co.'s Dimension Films has set Billy Bob Thornton and Jon Heder (Napoleon Dynamite) to star in School for Scoundrels, a remake of the 1960 British comedy, reports Variety. Todd Phillips, who wrote the script with Scot Armstrong, will direct.

Phillips and Armstrong, who collaborated on Starsky & Hutch, Old School and Road Trip, have been working for several years to find a contemporary context for the comedy.

In the new version, Heder plays a down-on-his-luck meter reader who enrolls in a confidence-building class so he can win the love of his dream girl. The class turns out to be something quite different once it becomes clear to the young man that his professor (Thornton) has set his sights on the same woman.

The comedy will shoot in New York and L.A. in October for release next spring.

The Flock

GM! Back again from a short business trip. Thx for bearing with me. Let's begin with this movie:

Richard Gere has signed on to star in The Flock, a $35 million thriller that will mark the English-language debut of Hong Kong director Andrew Lau (Infernal Affairs).

The Hollywood Reporter says the film follows a hypervigilant federal agent (Gere) who, while training his young female replacement, must track down a missing girl who he is convinced is connected to a paroled sex offender he is investigating.

Hans Bauer and Craig Mitchell wrote the script. Bauer Martinez Distribution is planing to release the film in the fall of 2006.

Gere is in Manhattan shooting The Hoax, in which he plays author Clifford Irving, who sold a bogus biography of Howard Hughes in the 1970s and touched off a media frenzy

Monday, August 01, 2005

The Crow: Wicked Prayer

The Story: The story of ex-con Jimmy Cuervo (Furlong) and his girlfriend, Lily (Chriqui), who are murdered by Luc Crash (Boreanaz) and naturally he becomes the newest crow. I like Edward Furlong who was the kid in Terminator 2....This role will suit him.

"Ok, before you die get it right! I am not the birdman of alcatraz I'm the Fucking CROW!"

Dave Kajganich's script will center on Kidman's character Carol, who uncovers a conspiracy in a small town where the inhabitant's personalities seem to be changing.

Production begins in October on location in Baltimore.

Kidman has also recently re-confirmed her involvement in Wong Kar-wais upcoming A Lady from Shanghai which will shoot in Russia - most likely St. Petersburg - and elsewhere in the west. The film is set in the 1950s and revolves around a glamorous woman in danger and in love with a spy.

Serenity

The Story: Joss Whedon- the Oscar®- and Emmy-nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel-now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity.

The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family - squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

When Mal takes on two new passengers-a young doctor and his unstable, telepathic sister-he gets much more than he bargained for. The pair are fugitives from the coalition dominating the universe, who will stop at nothing to reclaim the girl. The crew that was once used to skimming the outskirts of the galaxy unnoticed find themselves caught between the unstoppable military force of the Universal Alliance and the horrific, cannibalistic fury of the Reavers, savages who roam the very edge of space. Hunted by vastly different enemies, they begin to discover that the greatest danger to them may be on board Serenity herself.

"You know you want some of this!"

"I said the RED button NOT the FUCKING BLUE button!!!"

"Ok...Now whose fucking idea was it to Glue my Fucking feet to this rig?"

The Lurkers

This is the first in a series of movies being made with Thomas Jane as the star. The first looks creepy enough!

I don't know much at this point but here is what I do know:

Star: Thomas Jane

Horror movie.

The Story: Los Angeles detective Jack Dietz is having one of the worst days of his life. One body is bad enough, but when another turns up with human bite marks, he knows his world has just turned inside out.

American Dreamz (update)

Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden has joined writer/director Paul Weitz's American Dreamz at Universal Pictures. Harden will play the first lady opposite Dennis Quaid's president.

Already cast are Hugh Grant, Richard Dreyfuss, Willem Dafoe and Mandy Moore. Weitz is producing with his brother Chris Weitz and their producing partner Andrew Miano through their Depth of Field production company.

Dafoe will play the role of vice president Sutter in the film, described as a satire of American politics and show business.

Wolf Brother

Variety says Fox 2000 Pictures has signed a deal with Young Guns writer John Fusco to adapt Wolf Brother, the first book in the "Chronicles of Darkness" books by British author Michelle Paver.

The children's book is set 6,000 years ago when evil stalks the land. Only twelve-year-old Torak and his wolf-cub companion can defeat it. Their journey together takes them through deep forests, across giant glaciers, and into dangers they never imagined.

The second book in the series, "Spirit Walker," is due out in the U.K. next month and arrives in the U.S. next year.

Fusco recently penned both the script to DreamWorks' Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron as well as Disney's Hidalgo.

Giants

GM! Yes I'm back once again! Had to take a few days off to work on another project I have been busy with. We'll start by bringing a short bit of news about the new film of Haley Joel Osment:

Haley Joel Osment is making a return to movies, taking a starring role in the independent coming-of-age feature Home of the Giants, says The Hollywood Reporter. Rusty Gorman is writing and directing the film.

Set in an Indiana town that lives for basketball, the story follows a teenager (Osment) who idolizes one of the town's basketball stars. The teen and his best pal are befriended by the player, who ends up being anything but the hero they thought he was.

The movie goes into production early next month in North Carolina.

Osment received an Oscar nomination for his performance opposite in The Sixth Sense. He has also starred in Pay It Forward, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Secondhand Lions.